Good evening, world. Here are today’s quality articles and reviews:
How Stuff Works: DVDs and DVD Players
Link: http://www.testfreaks.com/blog/information/how-stuff-works-dvds-and-dvd-players/
Article Blurb: “Though you may have hundreds of your favorite films kept on these fantastic shiny discs, do you really know how they function? It’s not just a piece of plastic. Do you know how they store their data, interact with your player and remote, and get images and sound to your TV and speakers? Many people are clueless about how a DVD disc and player actually works – they just know they should keep from abusing the shiny part, and shouldn’t use it as a coaster. While those things are very true, there’s a lot more to a DVD than sticking it in your player and waiting for the lion to roar. Let’s take a layman’s look at a DVD’s anatomy and how a DVD player reads it to craft the movie and sound stored within.”
====================================
25 Geek Guys and Why We Love Them
Link: http://igadgetlife.com/2009/09/24/25-geek-guys-and-why-we-love-them/
Article Blurb: “Geek. What does the word geek conjure up in your mind? At one time it meant a carnival performer biting the head off of a live chicken. Thank goodness the word has evolved.”
====================================
Extra DVD Ripper Professional Reviewed
Link: http://igadgetlife.com/2009/09/23/extra-dvd-ripper-professional-reviewed/
Review Blurb: “I’m back with the next in this little series of reviews to get your videos to your iPod so you can take them with you on the go. Today for review I’ve got Extra DVD Ripper Professional and it’s a bit on the expensive side coming in at almost $35, but for the cost you get quite a bit options to play with, and you can convert your movie to many different formats. So read on for a surprise…”
====================================
QNAP TS-439 Pro
Link: http://aphnetworks.com/reviews/qnap_ts_439_pro
Review Blurb: “Almost exactly one year ago, we’ve reviewed the QNAP TS-409 network attached storage system. The QNAP TS-409 offered brilliant reliability and stability in our long term tests — of which lasted an uptime of 221 days, 1 hour, and 54 minutes until connections to Disk 2 overloaded, partially due to a user error! The system also provided excellent performance according to our benchmarks, as well as efficient power usage for a lower power bill, since it’s going to be running 24/7. But it wasn’t by all means perfect.”
====================================
Super Talent UltraDrive ME 32GB SSD
Link: http://www.ninjalane.com/reviews/storage/supertalentssd
Review Blurb: “Solid State Drives are quickly becoming a popular upgrade in all types of computers. They are completely silent, extremely fast, and consume considerably less power. So why have they not replaced rotational hard drives? Well simply put, SSD is still cost prohibitive to most especially considering the storage capacity differences.”
====================================
ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 Preview
Link: http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/gpu_displays/ati_radeon_hd_5870_1gb_gddr5_preview/1
Review Blurb: “So it’s finally that time of year when after a significant amount of time of what seems as though a stagnant market we’re presented with something new and hopefully very special. What exactly do you hope to see? Substantial performance increases from the previous top end of graphics card? An improvement in visuals and eye candy and/or just all out bang per buck? Honestly, we welcome change of any sort so long as it’s change for the good.”
====================================
Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 1GB in CrossFire
Link: http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/2934/sapphire_radeon_hd_5870_1gb_in_crossfire/index.html
Review Blurb: “I have to say, over the past few releases we’ve had the ability to do Crossfire testing at launch, but the drivers haven’t been ready from ATI. To be honest, when it came to these drivers we weren’t sure if it was going to work, but with our cards installed and the drivers installed we were greeted with a window that told us that Crossfire could be enabled once we had rebooted.”
====================================
Zalman CNPS10X Extreme
Link: http://www.modders-inc.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=290
Review Blurb: “Zalman has a great history of dependable after market cooling for both the CPU and the GPU. For a long time the copper "flower" cooler was the way to go when you wanted the best cooling for you chip. These days the competition is fierce and there are so many coolers to choose from it can make your head spin. Well Zalman has a new cooler with a different look. The CNPS10X Extreme is designed like the more conventional upright heatpipe coolers that are dominant right now. Read on as we run this cooler through the heat gauntlet and find out if this new direction pays off.”
====================================
Intel Core i7 Mobile CPU (Clarksfield)
Link: http://hothardware.com/Articles/Intel-Core-i7-Mobile-Processor-Launch-Review/
Review Blurb: “For quite some time now, Intel has been the undisputed leader when it comes to laptop CPU performance. This advantage comes from the fact that Intel has successfully scaled its desktop processor technology for use mobile platform. That trend continues with the latest mobile processor platform being unleashed today from Intel: the "Clarksfield"-based Core i7 Mobile processor family and the new PM55 Express Chipset.”